SCOTLAND’S two cricket franchises in the inaugural Euro T20 Slam landed a big-hitting New Zealand batsman apiece as the tournament squads were finalised at yesterday’s draft in London.
Glasgow Giants snapped up former Kiwi opener Brendon McCullum, while Edinburgh Rocks added Martin Guptil to their roster fresh from his appearance in the World Cup final.
The six-team tournament will be staged in three tranches in Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands this summer, with Edinburgh’s Grange Club hosting 10 matches from September 6 to 12.
The competition, bankrolled by Indian money, looks to pair native talent with established global stars such as England captain Eoin Morgan and Australian Shane Watson.
Each team were allocated one icon player and one marquee player - at a cost of £108,000 and £92,000, respectively – in the draft and then given the chance to draft five more international players and nine local players.
As well as McCullum as their icon, Glasgow landed fast-bowling South African Dale Steyn as their marquee player. They also recruited Ravi Bopara, Usman Shinwari, Moises Henriques, Qais Ahmed, Heinrich Klassen and JJ Smuts, while local talent was added in the form of Richie Berrington, George Munsey, Ali Evans, Safyaan Sharif, Matthew Cross, Tom Sole, Scott Cameron, Hamza Tahir and Michael Jones.
Edinburgh chose Australian batsman Chris Lynn as their marquee player and snapped up Corey Anderson, Matt Henry, Tymal Mills, Tabraiz Shamsi, Anton Devcich, Waqar Salamkheil and Dwaine Pretorius. Scots came in the form of national team captain Kyle Coetzer, Calum MacLeod, Mark Watt, Michael Leask, Craig Wallace, Gavin Main, Adrian Neill, Dylan Budge and Oliver Hairs.
Each squad will have 16 to 18 players, with a maximum of seven overseas stars - but they can only play five of those overseas players in any one game. The other franchises involved are Amsterdam Knights, Rotterdam Rhinos, Belfast Titans and Dublin Chiefs.
Morgan, who will represent his native Dublin, felt it was a significant moment in the development of cricket in the three host countries.
"It feels weird now but when you think about everything that is going on with Irish and Scottish cricket - Scotland turned [England] over last year, which was great for the game - it's important to lay a platform to give people opportunities to play on a more consistent basis against some of the best players in the world,” said Morgan. “It's brilliant and I think there's a market for it as well."
The organisers have already indicated that next year's competition will move to July to avoid clashing with the England and Wales Cricket Board's much-trumpeted new format, The Hundred.
It is also understood that a broadcast agreement has already been signed with Sony for the Indian market, with a British and Irish deal to come.
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